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September 2010
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Summer has gone by fast...
… harvest time has arrived. This year the grape picking is a bit late. We
have had a long and severe winter, and spring only picked up three weeks
later than usual. This is the reality and beauty of working with the land,
the grapes and the weather: one cannot plan. Now the Moscato grapes are ripe
and even the Barbera grapes from our old Bionzo vineyard have already been
picked. Soon we will start also with the Nebbiolo. The Piedmont harvest is
long, from Moscato to Barolo we usually have to work hard for 6 weeks. Long
hours and much physical work, but what an exciting time! We love it.
Bruno, Carlo and Giorgio Rivetti and the La Spinetta Team
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A word from Giorgio
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For over 30 years La Spinetta has been making Moscato d’Asti,
that sparkling sweet wine, that unfortunately in the past
had to suffer a bit under a bad reputation. Today wine
lovers around the world have rediscovered the good Moscato
d’Asti as a wine so refreshing and enjoyable that it puts a
smile on your face anytime you drink it.
Our Moscato sales are booming. The 2009 vintage was the
first vintage that was sold out long before the new vintage
will be ready.
What makes Moscato so special is the balance of fruit,
sweetness and acidity and of course the natural CO2
that is a byproduct of the natural fermentation.
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The balance of fruit and acidity we can only achieve by harvesting
balanced fruit. That means that the essential ingredient for Moscato
is, just like for any other wine, perfect ripe fruit with good
acidity.
After taking off the stems and crushing the grapes, the Moscato
grapes are pressed. The juice is immediately filtered and
transferred to closed steel tanks for a very slow, low-temperature
(16°C
degrees) alcoholic fermentation. This process takes about 2 weeks.
The slower the fermentation, the more fruit and flower aromas one
will extract. At an alcohol level of 4.5-5.5% the fermentation is
stopped by reducing the temperature to 3°C
degrees and by filtering out any remaining yeast. All of this
happens under pressure in order to maintain the natural CO2.
Finally the Moscato is bottled, again under pressure and is ready to
be released and enjoyed right away. The fresher the Moscato, the
better the taste.
Now compared to Champagne, Moscato is a true
natural sparkling wine.
No sweetness (liquor) and no CO2 is added. The grapes for
Moscato d’Asti made by La Spinetta come from vineyards that are free
of any herbicides or pesticides, a vineyard respect and treatment
that is very hard to find in the Champagne region.
Un brindisi al Moscato! Cheers!
Giorgio, the farmer
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Interview:
speaking with Michael
Skurnik
Michael Skurnik founder, owner and Managing Director of M.
Skurnik Wines in New York, has created an impressive wine
importing and distributing company over the past 23 years,
largely influencing the US wine culture. Skurnik Wines was
founded in 1987 and today employs 60 people, that manage
approximately 3,500 different wines from 12 different
countries (USA and Italy being the top).
1.Where does your great passion for wine come from? Was it passed on
by your family or did a special coincidence make you discover the
world of wine?
First of all, you need to understand that in America in the 1960s,
our culture did not include an awareness of fine foods and wines.
When I was 14 years old, my parents visited France and fell in love
with wine. It was my mother whose passion led to a wine cellar being
installed in the Skurnik household. This was my first exposure to
fine wine. |
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2.When did you first start to import wine and distribute it in NY?
We started doing business in September 1987, six weeks prior to the
stock market crash!
What kind of wine did you first import?
We sold American wine first, then French, then Italian…
What
was the local NY market like?
In 1987, it was very French-dominated. All the best restaurants were
French, and as a result, French wines were the most widely
available. The Italian wines scene in New York was dominated by
Bolla, Riunite, and the like.
3.How did the market and your clients change
over the years?
How much did the wine sophistication
increase? Did Michael Skurnik Wines influence the local market? If
so, to what extend?
I like to think that we played a major role in influencing the way
the market here has changed over the years. However, wine has just
been a small part of the overall cultural revolution we have
experienced. The combination off increased awareness and exposure to
fine food, fresher flavors, higher styled fashion, and easier travel
have all combined to create a more sophisticated market for wine.
4.You have and you still travel a lot to different wine countries
around the world. Obviously great wine is linked to great food and
therefore you certainly have become also an expert on great food.
Today, do you think that the NYC restaurant scene and the
availability of food still differs from what you experience around
the world?
Or do
you think one can experience the world of food and wine also by
staying in NYC?
If you want to experience the world, you must travel the world.
There is no substitute. That being said, there is no question that
New York is the greatest city in the world to dine and consume fine
wine, if you want to experience the diversity of tastes and flavors
of the whole world. They are all here!
5.What do you love most about your work?
I love the wine first, the people second, and the places they all
come from third. What do I like least about it? The compliance, the
complex and unnecessary red tape involved in doing this business.
Why do you think your company has become so successful?
Service, selection, people, attitude, passion
Is there a secret you want to share?
No secret really, it’s just about caring and really believing in the
work you do. If you follow through and do the things you promise,
with integrity and honesty, the rest will follow.
6.Your portfolio is extensive and very impressive.
Thank you!
Do
you really know every wine that you sell?
Well, my brother Harmon and I still make the selections for the
Skurnik portfolio. Even though we have appointed skilled, talented
individuals to manage the day-to-day details of our diverse
portfolios from around the world, Harmon and I are still the ones
who taste and decide which wines make it into the Skurnik portfolio
and which will not, no-one else.
How often do you still attend tastings?
I taste as often and as much as I can.
7. Michael Skurnik Wines is a family business. What in your opinion
are the advantages, when you have your family involved in a
business?
Being a first generation family business, I can only tell you that
we have built our company on a certain level of trust and shared
knowledge which yields a power base that is hard to duplicate.
8. Do you think a real passion for wine is
genetically passed on, or something one can be
brought to?
This is a very interesting question. There is no doubt that the
ability to taste and differentiate between flavors is a specialized
set of skills. I think it is more of a question of paying attention
and listening to your palate than it is a genetic disposition.
Musical and athletic prowess can certainly passed on from generation
to generation, but being a good taster? I am not so sure.
9. And at last, the famous question: If you were to go to a deserted
island and you could only take one case of wine with you, what would
those 6 bottles (European case size) be?
Six Methusalem – one champagne, one fresh young Italian white like
Orvieto or Greco di Tufo, one Chablis, one Barolo/ Barbaresco, two
red Burgundies.
Jan-Pierre Geraud, Managing Director of Taransaud TONNELLERIE in
France, will be answering our questions in the next newsletter.
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September 4th was a great day for the OLC members and for the La Spinetta
Team
On September 4, we held the first La Spinetta One Liter
Club Hands-On Day, a day of work
- and play! - in the La Spinetta
vineyards and cellar.
It was a lovely day: the weather was fantastic, and the Moscato grapes had
ripened just in time. 42 winelovers from 10 countries joined us in Piemonte
to pick grapes and learn how Moscato wine is made, from the grapevine to the
bottle.
A blue sky and warm sunshine greeted our visitors as they arrived at the
winery in Castagnole Lanze in the morning, where they met Giorgio, Giovanna
and the rest of the La Spinetta staff. After a brief tour of the cellar and
facilities, we headed out to our Biancospino vineyard, not far from the
winery, and began the grape harvest. Giovanna and Giorgio explained the
work: Harvesting grapes is not a singular work, you work in a group along a
row, two to a basket. Each bunch of the plump juicy Moscato grapes has to be
laid carefully into the basket, after
taking off leaves and any shrivelled or rotten grapes.
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The sun was warm and the hill was steep, but our
enthusiastic helpers managed to pick more than a tractor-load full, which we
then destemmed and put into the press.
Hands-on: this means more than just seeing a picture of a
cellar, looking at a map to determine the exposure of a vineyard, memorizing
the good vintages of a particular zone, or reading tasting notes. Hands-on,
for our visitors, meant to feel the sunshine that produces the sugars and
aromas in our Moscato grapes hot on their shoulders, the steepness of the
vineyard in their legs, the plump juiciness of the bunches in their hands,
and then the coolness of the barrel cellar.
It also meant to share the preoccupations of the grape farmer, or anybody
working with nature and living things: would the grapes be ripe despite the
cool weather a few weeks earlier, would it rain so we couldn’t harvest, and
what to do when the birds have nibbled at the grapes.
It meant learning new skills, assessing ripeness or over-ripeness in the
grapes by tasting them, tasting still-turbid grape must straight from the
barrel, and the pressed-out grapes that will be sent to the distillery.
Our visitors were certainly hands-on: carefully clipping the ripe bunches of
Moscato grapes, loading the full baskets onto the tractor, pouring the
grapes into the destemming machine and tidying up the empty baskets - there
were always many helping hands.
The group proved to be also very interested, listening intently to Giorgio’s
and Manuela’s explanations and asking many questions.
And certainly, a good morning’s work made a good lunch all the more welcome,
and the generous picnic of Piemontese antipasti and Tuscan La Spinetta wines
laid out on a big table under a chestnut tree was much appreciated. A friend
of the family joined us with his guitar and sang Italian and Piemontese
songs. After a relaxing lunch overlooking hills and vineyards, Manuela and
Eleonora took us on a walk through the Gallina vineyard in Neive, to see the
Nebbiolo and Barbera vines ripen in sight of the tower of Barbaresco.
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A celebratory dinner rounded off the day. The traditional
aperitivo, the start of any
Piemontese evening, was set right in the middle of the La Spinetta Campé
Barolo vineyard, and we toasted as the sun set over the rolling hills of the
Langhe, striped with vineyards beneath sturdy castles and little towns. Then
a mouthwatering Piemontese feast, prepared by Giovanna, awaited us at the
winery. Carne cruda and
vitello tonnato, tajarin al ragù and coniglio
al forno, cheese and fresh peaches -
the traditional Piemontese flavors were matched perfectly with La
Spinetta wines from Piemonte which Giorgio introduced one by one, like old
friends. Fun was also the blind tasting with wines brought along by our club
members. Giorgio led a round of tasting and discussing the wines, and the
enjoyment of the wines was made even better through the pleasure of sharing
the experience with others who were just as interested and knowledgeable.
This is also what made the day so special for us: being able to share our
passion and enthusiasm with many like-minded wonderful people – our La
Spinetta One Liter Club Members!
We are already looking forward to the next time!
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High season Piedmont: October and November is when the people from all over
the world come for white truffles, great food and wine…
Truffles – the white gold of Alba
The small Piemontese town of Alba is much renowned in the world of gourmets.
Situated at the doorstep of the Langhe hills, it has long been the trading
point for the wines of Langhe, among them the noble Barolo and Barbaresco.
Also the other important product of the Langhe, the hazelnut, has left its
culinary mark on the town – transformed with traditional praline-making
skills and sometimes married with chocolate, Langhe hazelnuts are the stars
of the cafés of Turin, sold in the famous chocolates and gianduoitti
hazelnut pralinés. The typical Piemontese confectionery has also been
mass-produced and distributed worldwide through a local sweet manufacturer
by the name of Ferrero.
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And then there is the third jewel in Alba’s crown: the legendary
white truffles. These fungi have a particular and complex aroma that
cannot be matched or copied. They are a highly sought-after delicacy
that can fetch fantastic prices of €3000/ kg or more. White truffles
cannot be artificially raised, and they cannot be preserved for
longer than their natural life-span of around 10 days. They are a
completely wild, naturally-occuring and quite rare product, only
found in a few places, in a short season from October to January,
and only with the help of specially trained animals (dogs are
favoured over pigs, since pigs are connoisseurs and reluctant to
give up what they find…). This explains some of the mystique that
still surrounds these unusual fruits of the earth.
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The
truffle (tuber magnatum pico) is a type of fungus that develops underground
at the roots of certain trees. Not any tree will do: favoured are certain
types of oak, linden, poplars and willows. There are many such woods in the
hills of the Langhe which makes them also a favoured habitat of wild boars,
the nightmares of wine growers as they thrash through the vineyards and eat
plants and fruit.
For the white knobbly truffle bulb that we like to eat to form, the earth
must be cool and moist – as it would be, in late October in the Langhe. A
truffle will grow for some time underground, but it will only begin to
develop its famous smell when it is mature and ready to give out spores. The
smell is too faint for a human nose to detect, but the fine noses of dogs
and pigs are able to find it. Like the mist that blankets the nebbiolo
vineyards in early Fall, so, too, the scent of the truffles rises from the
warmer earth into the colder air. Rain will completely wash away the smell,
that’s why truffle hunters get to have a night off when it’s raining.
Otherwise, they are likely to be out every night in the season, checking
their prime spots (like other mushrooms, truffles tend to always spring up
at the same places, since they actually grow out of a fine web laced through
the ground, called mycelium). There is no reason to go searching for
truffles at night except for secrecy. At the prices that these bulbs sell
for, it is no wonder. Most restaurant owners (and other connaisseurs) in the
Langhe region will have their own truffle supplier, usually a taciturn older
gentleman in a flannel shirt and padded hunter’s vest, who will show up on
the kitchen door at night and unwrap a few specimens from a large white
handkerchief. The best way of keeping truffle (if one must, for a few days!)
is in a bowl covered with a slightly damp teatowel.
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If you out some eggs into the bowl alongside, they will absorb some
of the truffle aroma through the fine pores of their shells. The
best way to serve white truffles is thinly shaved over simple
dishes, such as a plate of fresh egg tagliatelle, or a fried egg, or
in the Piemontese specialty of carne all’Albese: over thin slices of
raw beef, finished with a drizzle of mild olive oil. There
are several types of truffle, beside the white one, such as the
black winter truffle which can be found alongside the white, and the
black summer truffle. These are fine products in their own right,
and a shaving of black summer truffle over some delicately steamed
green asparagus and a poached egg can be a delicious June supper,
but in complexity and aroma, the white truffle remains untouchable,
an exquisite and elusive delicacy. |
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Salone del Gusto, October 21st – to 25th in
Turin!
At the end of October, Turin will host one of the largest gourmet
fairs in the world: the International Salone del Gusto.
This event, held every two years, attracts up to 800,000 visitors
from all over the world. It is organised by the Slow Food
association, a not-for-profit organisation concerned with promoting
not only good food, but also sustainable practices in the production
and consumption of food. This means food production that is
respectful to the environment, produced with fair labour conditions,
and the consumption of food that focuses on the values of pleasure
and conviviality – eating together, enjoying the food and the
company. Slow Food sums it up under the motto ‘good, clean and fair’
food. The Salone del Gusto serves as a showcase to show how the
principles of the association are put into practice by quality food
producers in Italy and all over the world.
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This is the philosophy behind it – and it is realised into a
veritable fun fair for food lovers. There are guided tastings of
everything from wine through olive oil to bread, beer, cheese and
chocolate. There is the great Market, where a few thousand artisan
food producers are offering their products for the visitors to
sample and purchase. There are workshops on all sorts of
food-related topics: amphorae wines, biodynamic farming, raw milk
cheeses, homebrewing and fish farming. There are educational
parcours for children, cooking demonstrations by chefs from Africa,
China, Catalonia and Iceland, and lessons on growing a vegetable
garden. Visitors can taste wines made from vineyards that have never
seen phylloxera, or attend a talk by Aubert de Villaine, director of
Domaine Romanée-Conti.
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Naturally, also chefs and restaurants play an important part in the
activities, including both Michelin-starred international chefs, and
the heads of the kitchens of humble osterias, the traditional simple
Italian restaurants. Every day during the event, lunches and dinners
prepared by famous chefs are held, not at the exhibition grounds,
but in historic residences, villas, castles or restaurants in Turin
or the surrounding region. Among the chefs are Alain Ducasse, Michel
Bras, Massimo Bottura, Gennaro Esposito, and many more distinguished
names from Italy and the rest of the world.
A special guest chef this year will be our very own Giovanna! On
Sunday, October 24, we will welcome a group of Salone del Gusto
visitors at our winery, where
they will be able to participate in a traditional Piemontese
lunch prepared by Giovanna Rivetti, acording to her mother’s
recipes. Little green and yellow frittatas, chicken breast in
carpione, tajarin with a sauce cooked over a slow fire for hours and
bollito misto, mixed boiled meats, are just some of the traditional
Piedmontese dishes on the menu that day. The lunch will be of course
be paired with our wines: Barbera d'Alba Gallina, Barbaresco
Valeirano, Barolo Campè and Moscato d'Asti Bricco Quaglia, plus a
few surprises and some older bottles.
More information about the Salone del Gusto, including the full
schedule of activities, at:
www.salonedelgusto.it.
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Cooking Piemontese with Giovanna Rivetti
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Pollo - marinated chicken
Giovanna Rivetti was born in 1947.
She is our "vineyard manager" and our "in-house chef". She
learned the work in the vineyard from her father and the
work in the kitchen from her mother. Both parents taught
Giovanna skills which until today are great assets to La
Spinetta.
In each newsletter Giovanna will share one of her secret
recipes with us.Today
she is teaching us how to make
a delicious summer dish: pollo - marinated
chicken. This classic antipasti is a bit tricky to
prepare, but following Giovanna’s recipe, very rewarding.
You will need the following ingredients to make pollo for 6 people:
1 kg of chicken breast - sliced, 250 ml white wine (Giovanna
uses Chardonnay Lidia), 125 ml white wine vinegar, 125 ml
water, 2 cloves of garlic, 15 sage leaves, 150ml olive oil,
2 eggs and 200 gr bread crumbs
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First one bathes the chicken breast slices in the raw eggs and then
in the bread crumbs. Then you fry the slices in a pan, using ample
olive oil until the chicken is cooked. Don’t use too much heat.
Remove the chicken and let it cool down on paper towel to remove
some of the oil. Cut the sage and the garlic into small pieces and
heat them up in a pan, using olive oil. Again, watch the
temperature. Cook sage and garlic for 10 minutes and stir
frequently, then add white wine, water, vinegar and a tea spoon of
bread crumbs. Continue to cook on low temperature for 40 minutes.
Cut the chicken in small pieces (Giovanna uses round cookie forms to
cut out the chicken into round pieces) and pour the sauce over the
chicken. Let the chicken marinate for at least 12 hours in the
refrigerator.
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When you take the first bite, you will be amazed by the refreshing flavors!
Buon appetito!
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Anything new at La Spinetta
Screw tops for Australia, or why La Spinetta is starting to use cork
alternatives…
We recently started to bottle our Il Nero di Casanova also in
bottles with screw tops. Our first customer is our importer in
Australia, as this market primarily asks for none-cork solutions for
specific wines.
We believe that this is a good step into the right direction. Wines,
like the Il Nero di Casanova, that are not meant to be laid down for
aging, should be closed with cork alternatives.
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For wine producers it is increasingly more difficult to buy
good quality cork, as the world demand for cork is higher
than the world supply. Natural cork is harvested form cork
oak trees. The tree forms a thick, rugged
bark
containing high levels of
suberin,
a waxy, water-repellent substance. Over time the
cork cambium
layer of bark can develop considerable thickness and can be
harvested every 9 to 12 years to produce
cork.
The harvesting of cork does not harm the tree, in fact, no
trees are cut down during the harvesting process. Only the
bark is extracted, and a new layer of cork regrows, making
it a
renewable resource.
The tree is cultivated in
Spain,
Portugal,
Algeria,
Morocco,
France,
Italy
and
Tunisia.
Cork oaks live about 150 to 250 years. However a tree
can be harvested only twelve times in its lifetime. Cork harvesting
is done entirely without machinery, being dependent solely
on human labor. |
In order to harvest high-quality cork, it is important that the bark
is not extracted all the way to the ground. Fungus grows around most
trees and sometimes grows up the bark to a height of 50 cm and more.
If the bark is harvested all the way to the ground, the cork will
include fungus. It is this fungus then that will turn a bottle of
wine into a “corked” bottle of wine.
With less demand for natural cork, its producers are more likely to
harvest smaller quantities, achieving higher cork quality. At the
end we can all profit. Wines that are made to age will carry higher
quality corks and wines that are supposed to be enjoyed when young
are closed with cork alternatives.
For us, this is definitely a big step towards better quality!
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Your opinion on…
Bordeaux or Burgundy, Piedmont or Tuscany?
Many people say, that Burgundy and Piedmont have as much in common as
Bordeaux and Tuscany and they are referring to single vineyard, single grape
wines for the first two and blends for the second.
What is your opinion, which region makes the greater wines? The one that
stays with the single vineyard, single variety? Or the one that aims for a
perfect blend?
If you like to
share your thoughts and opinion with us and would like to have them
published in our next newsletter, please write to
myopinion@la-spinetta.com
Your comments to our
question in April’s Newsletter:
Black truffles that taste like white truffles? White truffle taste all year
around? The use of truffle oil in the kitchen makes all this possible. What
is your opinion on using this artificial truffle taste?
When I discovered truffle oil as a chef in the late 1990’s, I was thrilled.
So much flavor, so little expense. I suppose I could have given some thought
to how an ingredient that cost $60 an ounce or more could be captured so
expressively in an oil that sold for a dollar an ounce. I might have
wondered why the price of the oils didn’t fluctuate along with the price of
real truffles; why the oils of white and black truffles cost the same, when
white truffles themselves were more than twice as expensive as black; or why
the quality of oils didn’t vary from year to year like the natural
ingredients. But I didn’t. Instead I happily used truffle oil for several
years (even, embarrassingly, recommending it in a cookbook), until finally a
friend cornered me at a farmers’ market to explain what I had should have
known all along. I glumly pulled all my truffle oil from the restaurant
shelves and traded it to a restaurant down the street for some local olive
oil.
That truffle oil is chemically enhanced is not news. It has been common
knowledge among most chefs for some time. Instead, the use of truffle oil
continued apace. The question is, Why are so many chefs at all price points
— who wouldn’t dream of using vanillin instead of vanilla bean and who
source their organic baby vegetables and humanely raised meats with
exquisite care — using a synthetic flavoring agent?
Part of the answer is that, even now, you will find chefs who are surprised
to hear that truffle oil does not actually come from real truffles. The
flavor of real truffles, especially black, is evanescent, difficult to
capture in an oil under the best of circumstances.
But, much as I did for years, chefs want to believe. Stories of sightings of
natural truffle oil abound, like a gourmand’s answer to the Easter Bunny or
Santa Claus.
Truffle companies are secretive, and speaking to their representatives does
little to illuminate their production techniques.
By Daniel Patterson, chef and owner of Coi in San Francisco
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